Free Republic

If Congress does not act to prevent $85 billion in spending cuts scheduled to begin March 1, Catholic Charities of Baltimore may be among the impacted institutions, said its executive director William J. McCarthy Jr. “It concerns me, and it concerns Archbishop (William E.) Lori,” he said. “A budget is a moral document. It sets forth our priorities as a society and as a people – what do we value, and what do we think is most important? By cutting aid to the poor, whether it’s the children, whether it’s seniors or others living in poverty at the expense of...

It’s really simple, folks. Everything boils down to Obamacare. Do we really believe that Obamacare will make private health insurance unaffordable? Do we really believe Obamacare will bankrupt the nation and relegate the next generation of Americans to a dimmer future of less freedom and opportunity? Do we really believe Obamacare will create incorrigible dependency? Do we really believe that Obamacare will lead to a deterioration of healthcare services and rationed care? Are we really serious about balancing the budget and reforming entitlements? If the answer to the aforementioned questions is a resounding yes, which is presumably the case for...

In 2011, when Gov. Rick Snyder proposed cutting $300 per student for K-12 public education, Michigan School Business Officials Executive Director Dave Martell said as many as 160 schools could go into deficit if the cuts stood. In 2010-11, the year before Gov. Snyder's first budget, there were 48 schools in deficit. If Martell's claim were accurate, that means the number of districts losing money would have more than tripled. However, nearly two years later the Michigan Department of Education's report shows that fewer schools fell into deficit in 2011-12. The MDE report stated 46 districts were in deficit last...

Earlier this month NGO Monitor released its report on foreign government funding of radical political Israeli NGOs which work to undermine Israel's international standing and subvert Israeli society. Along with the usual European suspects who give millions of shekels (or Euros or pounds) to Israeli groups like this, it works out that the US government is also funding extremely radical organizations, courtesy of American taxpayers. Notably, the three groups that reported receiving funding from the US are all in the business of waging political warfare campaigns directed at the Israeli public. According to the report, in accordance with the NGO...

In The Detroit News, the presidents of the University Research Corridor schools argue that a dollar of state appropriations for their institutions returns $17 in economic benefits. But this analysis, regardless of accuracy, does not justify the appropriation. These multiplier analyses are meant to show the economic impact of spending in one area compared to another. For instance, this 17-times spending multiplier is awfully close to the returns promised from spending on early childhood education, where advocates argue that spending a dollar generates $16 in economic activity, despite evidence to the contrary. An even greater claim, using the same form...

Will this finally be enough to break the Obama administration's hold over Senate Democrats when it comes to the Hagel nomination? Chuck Hagel has refused to disclose to the Senate Armed Services Committee the sources of his foreign funding over the last five years. Is Chuck roast? (Hat Tip: Noah P). Republican members of the committee asked Hagel last week for information on whether any of the organizations received funding from any foreign government, individual, or corporation — a request he declined late Tuesday in a letter citing confidentiality agreements. "[T]he information you seek is legally controlled by the individual...

Before Mitt Romney said he was going to stop the subsidy to PBS, even though he likes Big Bird, at the first presidential debate, Sherrie Westin, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, Sesame Workshop, told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien that cuts to public broadcasting will not ‘kill Big Bird.’ Westin says, “Sesame Workshop receives very, very little funding from PBS. So, we are able to raise our funding through philanthropic, through our licensed product, which goes back into the educational programming, through corporate underwriting and sponsorship. So quite frankly, you can debate whether or not there should be funding of...

Last Friday, GOP presidential challenger Mitt Romney disclosed his tax returns and health records. In particular, the release of the tax information was a pleasant surprise –released without pre-announcement or fanfare. Romney gave information that dates back to 1990 which ought to close Harry Reid’s mouth for a time .....–it would be absolutely wonderful if the “right” would get such a disclosed-documentary surprise from President Barack Obama. ...What are Americans on the “left” afraid of learning about Obama? Simple curiosity would demand that Obama’s academic records be released –let alone really wanting to know about the past of the man...

Three of Livingston County's five high schools scored poorly on the Mackinac Center's high school report card: Howell, Fowlerville and Pinckney high schools received D's. Howell High School's ranking was 27.7 percent — meaning that more than 70 percent of Michigan's other high schools did better. Fowlerville ranked in the bottom 22.3 percent, while Pinckney ranked the lowest in the county, at 21.2 percent. The Mackinac Center's high school report card is different from other state assessments. It takes into account student socioeconomic status — a well-known variable that impacts standardized test scores — when evaluating schools in order to...

PHOENIX, AZ --(Ammoland.com)- The lamestream media told you: NBC News is reporting that American politics has reached a milestone. Spending on the 2012 presidential campaign for broadcast radio and TV has surpassed a half billion dollars, and that was before Labor Day, according to Brian Williams. That is greater than the entire cost of the campaign in 2008. The implication is that money is ruling politics and that is not a good thing. The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that: Missing from NBC’s report is who GETS the money. NBC does, along with their other media colleagues. The broadcast media and...

Military: The administration thanks the troops for their service by failing to comply with a law requiring that it help soldiers deployed overseas cast ballots in their home states. The administration has taken various states to court to block voter ID laws on the grounds it will disenfranchise voters. But it has no qualms about the disenfranchisement of military voters overseas through its failure to comply with and enforce the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, passed by Congress in 2009 and signed into law by President Barack Obama. The law acknowledges the difficulties caused by time and distance...

Recently, many Ann Arbor parents received a letter informing them that there was a relatively large gap between high-performing and low-performing students in their child's school. They could, the letter said, choose to transfer their child to another school with a smaller achievement gap. The twist, noted AnnArbor.com, is that the alternative schools with low achievement gaps also tended to report lower overall student performance. The letters were to communicate a new school measure created by the Michigan Department of Education in response to federal policy. Schools identified as having a larger-than-average gap between the top 30 percent of student...

State argued that it is not required to subsidize organizations that advocate elective abortions AUSTIN, Texas — A federal appeals court ruled late Tuesday that Texas can cut off funding for Planned Parenthood clinics that provide health services to low-income women before a trial over a new law that bans state money from going to organizations tied to abortion providers. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans lifted a federal judge's temporary injunction calling for the funding to continue pending an October trial on Planned Parenthood's challenge to the law. Texas officials sought to cut off funding...

Already reeling from big cutbacks in Medicare funding, hospitals in the Los Angeles metropolitan area would lose another 2.4 percent of their federal reimbursement under a new analysis ordered by Congress.

Despite highly publicized reports of 10 percent pay cuts within the West Bloomfield School District last year, a review of gross salaries of all employees who were on the payroll in 2011 and 2012 shows that there was a 1.4 percent overall salary increase. About three of every four teachers took an overall pay cut from 2011 to 2012, which averaged to be 1 percent, according to salary information of all employees for 2011 and 2012 that was requested by Capitol Confidential. However, some top administrators saw hefty increases. The top 13 people on the payroll in 2011 and 2012...

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- PBS President Paula Kerger said Saturday she's disappointed public TV's federal funding again is under attack by lawmakers. The move is ironic, she said, given the impressive number of Emmy Award nominations earned last week by PBS programs, including the popular drama "Downton Abbey." PBS received 58 nods, second only to HBO and CBS. Public television gets 15 percent of its money from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with the rest largely contributed by viewers, Kerger told a meeting of the Television Critics Association. But some stations would lose more than half their...

Conservatives tell GOP leaders they want healthcare funding fight this yearBy Sam Baker - 07/11/12 04:34 PM ET Conservatives in the House are pushing GOP leaders to continue the campaign against President Obama's healthcare law even after Wednesday's vote to repeal the law. Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) are gathering signatures this week for a letter asking GOP leaders to defund the healthcare law this year. "We appreciate your willingness to schedule a vote on the full repeal of ObamaCare," the letter states. "We should continue efforts to repeal the law in its entirety this year, next...

Democrat State Rep. Jim Townsend said a GOP budget that does not add as much to the education budget as he would like is "atrocious." In a June 20 letter to the editor posted on the Royal Oak Patch website, Townsend, a Royal Oak resident, said he has been subjected to misleading election year robo calls. But several of Townsend’s claims in his own letter bear a closer look. Townsend's letter said: "As a result of last year's cuts, school districts around the state closed schools and cut an estimated 15,000 teacher and other school jobs." The reality: Townsend is...

New data from the state (available in this online database) show that despite constant calls from school officials and government employee union bosses for more funding, public schools in Michigan received more money in 2011 than ever before — about $13,405 per pupil. Total school spending, however, did drop from its all-time high in 2010 — by less than 1 percent. Schools spent $12,778 per pupil last year overall, with $11,561 of that spent on day-to-day operating expenses. Dissecting the data exposes interesting trends. For instance, although overall school spending was down slightly, there was one area that saw consistent...

ANNAPOLIS — The Maryland State Archives collection is among the largest in the country with nearly 400 years of history, including Colonial-era paintings, keepsakes of the state’s governors, and thousands of land, court and genealogy records. With all that history, the Archives has run out of space. The agency first filled its Annapolis headquarters to capacity in 2000, then leased and filled a warehouse. It leased a second warehouse and a third before brokering a deal to store some of its property at the Baltimore City Archives. All of the facilities are now full, and state archivists have been pushing...